THOR-MENTED!
AMAZIN’ ACE GOES ON DISABLED LIST, COULD BE OUT FOR MONTHS
ATLANTA — There is plenty of blame to go around. The Mets need to finally address the way they deal with injuries and Noah Syndergaard has a responsibility to keep himself healthy, even if that means unnecessary tests, for his teammates, too. There will be plenty of time to reevaluate for both team and pitcher. Syndergaard was placed on the 10day disabled list with a partially torn right lat muscle Monday, though even Sandy Alderson admitted there is little chance the righthander will be back soon. “I don’t think this period is going to be measured in days, think it’s going to be measured in weeks,” the Mets GM said. “It’s going to be a considerable amount of time.” According to Dr. Leesa Galatz, chair of the orthopedics department at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the usual recovery time for these injuries is “three to four months.” “There is a period of rest, followed by progressive strengthening and then a return to throwing,” Galatz said Monday afternoon. “It does take some time, though. The good news is that most major league pitchers return to the pitching at the same level or better when they do return.”
Steven Matz missed just over two months with a partially torn lat muscle in 2015. The Mets lefty felt the issue during his start July 5 at Dodger Stadium and he did not pitch again until Sept. 6.
So there will be plenty to rehash how this injury was handled or mishandled, but that won’t change the fact the Mets now have to try to keep their hopes for the 2017 season alive with a decimated roster and rotation.
Monday night, Robert Gsellman continued to struggle, giving up five runs on six hits, in the Mets’ 7-5 win over the Braves at the new SunTrust Park. That shows just how critical it is the Mets find an arm to help bridge the gap.
“Like I tell the players sometimes you’re allowed 24 hours to be upset and you got to move forward. We got to come out and play today and
not worry about what happened yesterday,” Terry Collins said.
“In case of injury situation it was same thing, we got to find somebody to pitch on Friday,” the Mets manager added. “We will find that person and try to get them prepared as best we can.”
As of Monday, the plan was to bring up Rafael Montero to make the start on Friday.
That buys the Mets time, but Montero is not the answer. The Mets’ farm, which was once stocked with hard-throwing young pitchers, is now bare.
Alderson will have to go outside to find help. There are free agents like Doug Fister, who the Mets watched throw last month, but more likely the Mets will have to dig deep into their farm system to make a trade.
The Mets GM seemed a little more open to that idea Monday, but not overly optimistic.
“We have looked at that possibility, I would say yes, that this probably accelerates that process,” Alderson said of getting pitching help. “I think we have to be realistic about what may be out there. As I said before there are some pitchers may be available who have not been pitching, would require a certain amount of time to ramp up and may not be available to us until about the time Matz and (Seth) Lugo are possibly back, but there may be some other possibilities. “Certainly this changes that situation a little bit.” Actually the Mets had already been in need of an arm. Remember Zack Wheeler is on an innings limit that won’t get him through the entire season and the bullpen has already proven to be inconsistent. The Mets could use a spot starter who could move into the role of long man when and if the Mets’ rotation gets back to full health. Right now, they seem willing to wait and see with Lugo, who is trying to pitch with a torn ulnar collateral ligament, and Matz, who has a mysterious discomfort in his elbow.
They will both throw off the top of the mound for the first time on Tuesday, according to Mets assistant GM John Ricco. They are still at least a month away from being able to come back — barring any setbacks. The Mets can’t sit back and wait much longer.